olha pryymak

It’s too cold to get out to see anything new today, so this post is about a small town Ostrog in Rivnenska oblast that I visited last year. The main attraction there are the ruins of XV Century Ostrogski family castle and a Mezhyrich monastery on the outskirts. The castle includes Trinity church and several towers that still remain (New tower on the pic).

Also, there is a nationally renowned school in town – Ostrog Academy – situated on the grounds of XVIII Century Capuchin monastery. First published Bible in eastern orthodoxy came out here in XVI Century.

Mezhyrich monastery is also fortified with great walls around. It opens to the view across a pond, as you leave Ostrog on top of the hill, surrounded by a village. The monks there are pretty stickt, hold pieces of at cloth at the entrance for those harpless women, who fail to show up in long skirts and headscarfs to wrap you properly before entering the church.

Inside the church interior is touched by darkness and time. It holds a great chandalier and a wonderful icon with Mary and child in the right hand corner. Even if you try really hard to look as if you are visiting the church to pray, the monks spot a tourist in you right away and approach you with an appropriate lecture. They care less if you speak no Ukrainian (as it was in my husband’s case) and get their message across with menathing intonation and the length of speech.

Tags: architecture, travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 11:07 am and is filed under travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.